Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a unique CNS disorder resulting from direct or indirect interactions of physical forces with the head and eventually with the brain (when physics meets biology). The physical forces, their energy level, their distribution – focal or diffuse, etc. triggering TBI are highly complex. How the energy is transferred, what biological structures, tissues, cellular and subcellular elements are involved and how they respond to the physical events further adds to the complexity. The initial (primary) biological response to the physical components ranging from physical annihilation of tissue and cells to the (transient) upending of the highly complex, delicate and carefully maintained balances between ions and molecules across various biological barriers.
The failures of the last decades to develop effective and evidence based therapeutics in TBI are partly due to lack of high fidelity models of TBI due to our incomplete understanding of interactions between physical and biological events.
The extensive use of explosive blast as weapon or as mean of terror has been a “game changer”. Explosive blast is not only a highly complex type of physical forces but it appears that the resulting TBI is a highly complex kind of injury. The new public awareness about TBI has been further increased by reports and studies related to mild athletic or sport injuries (concussions), which are often repeated.
Our goal with launching this Research Topic is to review and summarize the most current knowledge about the physical components that cause the various forms of TBIs; in biomechanics of the brain, the various biological structures affected by physical forces, and their molecular and cellular responses to mechanical insults. Importantly, we would like to encourage presentations of ongoing original works in this Research Topic.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a unique CNS disorder resulting from direct or indirect interactions of physical forces with the head and eventually with the brain (when physics meets biology). The physical forces, their energy level, their distribution – focal or diffuse, etc. triggering TBI are highly complex. How the energy is transferred, what biological structures, tissues, cellular and subcellular elements are involved and how they respond to the physical events further adds to the complexity. The initial (primary) biological response to the physical components ranging from physical annihilation of tissue and cells to the (transient) upending of the highly complex, delicate and carefully maintained balances between ions and molecules across various biological barriers.
The failures of the last decades to develop effective and evidence based therapeutics in TBI are partly due to lack of high fidelity models of TBI due to our incomplete understanding of interactions between physical and biological events.
The extensive use of explosive blast as weapon or as mean of terror has been a “game changer”. Explosive blast is not only a highly complex type of physical forces but it appears that the resulting TBI is a highly complex kind of injury. The new public awareness about TBI has been further increased by reports and studies related to mild athletic or sport injuries (concussions), which are often repeated.
Our goal with launching this Research Topic is to review and summarize the most current knowledge about the physical components that cause the various forms of TBIs; in biomechanics of the brain, the various biological structures affected by physical forces, and their molecular and cellular responses to mechanical insults. Importantly, we would like to encourage presentations of ongoing original works in this Research Topic.
